


Group Projects Suck

by youngavengerfeels



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, M/M, Modern Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 22:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11344788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengerfeels/pseuds/youngavengerfeels
Summary: Bucky gets paired with a guy who never shows up to class for a group presentation.





	Group Projects Suck

Bucky always felt awkward in his classes. He was significantly older than anyone else in his class, it was a side effect of joining the army right after high school instead of going to college like most of his peers. He had always planned on going to college but more in the sense of taking a break from the army and re-joining as an officer, but losing his arm had thrown that plan out of the water.

He also hated that he was expected to represent the US Military just because he served. Any time one of his classes talked about the military or anything related the whole class, professor included would turn to Bucky for the pro-military argument. He didn't really think that was fair because yes he enlisted when he was 18, but that didn't mean he agreed with everything the military did or was even knowledgeable it. 

So yeah parts of college were super awkward but overall he was enjoying it a lot. Expect for the group projects. Bucky had always been a team player but he hated group projects. There were the bane of his academic existence. 

“Barnes and Rogers. Please see me after class James,” the Professor said. Bucky looked around trying to figure out who his partner was but no one was trying to make eye contact with him, so he assumed his partner was absent, great. 

After class Bucky waited for the suck ups to finish their desperate attempts to make the professor like them before heading over. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong but still getting called out by anyone in an authority position was a little nerve wracking. 

“Thanks for staying late James, I wanted to talk to you about the group project. Your partner has some special circumstances that don't allow him to come to class but still wants the full experience. I think all things considered you would be best equipped to handle the working under the constraints so I partnered you together. I am giving you Steve’s personal cell phone and email address so you can get together for the project,” the professor explain _ ed _ . Bucky took the offers business card looking at the name. “Steve Rogers” that was real original. He wondered how much the guy had been teased for sharing Captain America’s name growing up. 

“If he can't come to class why doesn’t he get a separate individual assignment?” Bucky asked both curious and annoyed. This project wa already going to much more of a hassle than he wanted to deal with. 

“Steve assured me could get his share of the work done in a timely manner and didn't want to be treated too differently because of his situation,” the professor said with a shrug. Bucky could understand that. Ever since he had come home one arm short people tiptoed around him. While sometimes he needed the help over all it just annoyed the hell out of him that people automatically assumed he wasn't self sufficient. So yeah he was going to give this guy the benefit of the doubt but was also prepared to have his partner fall through on doing his share of the work. A life time in public school would make a guy paranoid like that. 

Bucky quickly sent the guy an email introducing himself and saying his idea for the project. Bucky was really interested in looking into how labor issues were portrayed in popular culture and how that affect labor history. He was open to other ideas but didn't want to get stuck with a topic he was interested in at all. He kind of forgot about the project completely until he was checking his email later that night.

 

_ Dear James, _

 

_ Thanks for agreeing to be my partner even though I’ve never made it to class. I think analyzing the way labor unions and labor issues are portrayed in popular culture is a great topic. Books and movies like ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and even ‘Wizard of Oz’ are a great way of looking at how labor issues were woven into the popular culture. Even though I can’t make it to class I will strive to be timely on my share of the work. I look forward to hearing from you and getting started on our project _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Steve Rogers _

 

Bucky reread the short message a couple times just taking it in. The guy sounded like a teenager trying to write their first professional email. Also the mention of the old classic movies made the guy sound like a nerd.  All it did was reinforce the imagine of a frail man too sick to come to class that Bucky had inexplicably had of the guy. 

 

_ Call me Bucky, everyone else does. Now that we’ve agreed on a topic, we can just divide the work and come back together. Also while the book Wizard of Oz may have had ties to the Populist movie the movie was just a bunch of fluff to say ‘look we can use color now’ so I don’t know if we want to use it in our project. But Grapes of Wrath is a good call.  _

 

Bucky replied to Steve and went about making his dinner. About 15 minutes later he casually picked up his phone to check facebook and saw Steve had replied. 

 

_ Bucky, _

_ I can handle media from Pre-WWII and during the War if you want to handle the modern stuff. Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic that helped shape cinema.  That movie continues to be a favorite even though is was made over 75 years ago. The motifs created in that film as still referenced today in many forms of media. You are always seeing Wizard of OZ remakes but none hold up to the original, which speaks to how well it was made. Even if we do not use it for this project the movie is an important piece of American popular culture. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Steve  _

 

Bucky actually laughed out loud as he read the email. He couldn’ tell if the guy was seriously this bitter about Bucky’s disinterest in the Wizard of Oz or if he was just messing around. Either way Bucky found it hilarious. He quickly sent a reply conforming that he would handle the Post-WWII era. 

They messaged each more frequently than Bucky was expecting. He kind of figured once they divided the work up they wouldn’t come back together until it was time to write the paper and make the presentation. Instead any time Bucky ran across an interesting movie of piece of media he would send it to Steve who would also reply with a witty piece of commentary and his own cool find. Bucky found himself looking forward to Steve’s emails even though they were technically homework. 

The first time Bucky ran across a Wizard of Oz meme he texted to Steve without a second thought. He had saved Steve number from the business card his professor gave him but had only ever contacted Steve via email. He didn't think about the fact that Steve wouldn't know who was sending him a wizard of oz meme until he got a text back. 

**Steve:** ????

**Steve:** While that image is very amusing, I'm not sure who this is.

**Bucky:** sorry, it's Bucky. i just thought you would appreciate it since you love Wizard of Oz so much.

**Steve:** It transformed cinema for its time. 

**Bucky:** Judy Garland kind of sucks in it though

**Steve:** Take that back! Judy Garland is a national treasure!

It kind of devolved from there. Bucky really didn’t have an opinion on Wizard of Oz or Judy Garland until he realized he could tease Steve about it. Bucky started sending Steve meme’s every time he saw one and thought of him He didn’t realize how often he was texting Steve until Sam pointed it out to him. 

“Man, you know the rules, no phones in group. You need to be present in the group to get anything out of it,” Sam said after group therapy ended and it was just the two of them folding up chairs. 

“I was just texting my partner for a class assignment. He sent me a meme and I couldn’t find a good one to respond with,” Bucky said. 

“I hate when that happens,” Sam said sarcastically. “You are always glued to that thing nowadays. Did you finally start dating again?” Sam asked do that stupid eyebrow wiggle that only he could pull off. 

“No. Just have a lot to talk about with Steve,” Bucky said a little defensively. His friends and family were pushing him to get back out there and start dating again but he really wasn’t ready for that just yet. It wasn’t even that the wasn’t ready it was that he wasn’t really interested in it at the moment.  Sam gave him a knowing look. 

“Alright. You can be a meme loving fuck with your ‘partner’ all you want just not a group,” Sam said. Bucky nodded already replying to Steve’s latest text. 

  
  
  
  
  


Sometimes Bucky had really good days, even goood weeks when he really felt like he was getting better. It always suck more when he had a panic attack after a few good days. This time it was his upstairs neighbors yelling and a car backfiring that set him off. Before he realized what was happening he was crouched under his table for cover. 

The panic attack made it difficult to focus on any of the breathing techniques his therapist had taught him so he did the next best thing and tried calling his mom. He knew she wouldn't really understand what he was going through but he just needed to hear someone to help him focus on the fact that he was in Brooklyn not Afghanistan. 

The phone rang and rang, and the longer it went the more Bucky wanted to chuck it across the room. He hung up and tried calling his sister, when she didn't answer he tried calling his other sister. Rationally he knew that they were probably just busy living their own lives and not actively trying to avoid him, but it was hard to focus on that rational voice.

Without really thinking about it Bucky called Steve. He didn't really expect Steve to answer so when a deep voice answered he was slightly thrown off. 

“Hey! Bucky are you alright?” Steve asked. Oh god, this was a bad idea. All they ever did was send each other meme’s and talk about labor issues. Bucky had no idea why he had called Steve. It was incredible inappropriate for their relationship, he just really needed to hear someone talk right now. 

“I'm having a panic attack,” Bucky said.

“Do you need me to call someone for you? A doctor or maybe an ambulance?” Steve asked sounding worried. 

“No!” Bucky said more harshly than he meant to. “I just need to talk to someone about anything really,” Bucky explained.

“Alright. I doubt you really want to be talking about John Steinbeck or how unions are demonized in the media so forgive me if I end up rambling,” Steve said before launching into a story about the time be was a paperboy. It did end up with a labor issue since STeve was fired for trying to unionize the other paperboys, but it was still a good story. 

Bucky started to get lost in Steve’s deep voice letting himself focus on that pushing out thoughts of the IED back. Just having another person talking to him helped him focus on reality instead of getting stuck in a flashback. His breathing eventually started to even out and Bucky just felt heavy. 

“Thank you Steve. You barely even know me, but thank you,” Bucky said when he was in the presence of mind to talk again. 

“It's nothing Bucky. I'm not the most qualified to help you but I have a friend at the VA you could talk to if you need to,” Steve offered. 

“I got friends down there too who would kick my ass if I didn't show up to group every week, but thank you,” Bucky's aid because it was true if Buckh missed group without some sort of world ending reason Sam would find him and kick his ass. It was exactly what he needed to get his butt into gear. 

“I want you to know if you ever need someone to call you can call me. I won’t pretend to know what I’m doing but I’ve been struggling with transitioning from being a solider to being around civilians so I’ll be here if you ever need. ” Steve said which was incredibly sweet. 

“Thank you. I really appreciate it and that’s a two way street you know. If you ever need to get something off your chest you can come to me, no judgement,,” Bucky said. He was glad Steve was so understanding otherwise this whole situation wild have been really awkward. 

That first call opened in a door that Bucky didn’t realize was blocked. The next day was normal, Bucky going about his day as normal but in the evening Steve called him to check up on him. It could have come across as patronizing but on Steve it seemed like an earnest attempt to make sure his friend was doing ok. The calls became a normal thing for them. It was kind of great. 

  
  


Bucky was a sloppy drunk, there was no way around it. Normally Bucky wasn't a heavy drinker because he wanted to avoid dealing with any of the drama his drunken self always started but he also loved going to parties. At first he thought they would be awkward because he was older than everyone else at the college parties but no really seemed to notice or care. 

Darcy had dragged him out tonight when he had originally been blaming on binge watching documentaries on Netflixs. It was kind of sad his new definition of a fun Friday night was a glass of wine and a PBS documentary. He didn’t remember how he met Darcy, but he knew she was a Political Science grad student with the wildest stories about her internship. She also knew where the best parties were at. 

Once Bucky was drunk enough to not be actively repressing his feelings he got super lonely. He realized he was at a party but the only person he knew there was Darcy. All of his friends from high school had totally different lives now so he never talked to them and the people he knew from the army would always hold a special place in his heart but it wasn’t the same as having friends. What he really needed was a boyfriend. That would make him less lonely. Pulling out his phone he decided to remedy this situation. 

**Bucky:** Is your name Ariel, because I think we were mermaid for each other 

**Steve:** Bucky, you know my name.

**Bucky:** Shhh it's for the pun

**Steve:** well I sea what you did there.

**Bucky:** Oh wait! I have a better one for Captain America!

**Bucky:** Are you the Constitution  

**Bucky:** Because you look like a national treasure to me

**Steve:** That’s a terrible line, Buck. 

It went on for the rest of the night, Bucky’s pick up lines getting worse and worse but Steve still responded in good nature. Finally Bucky’s phone died which drunk him ended up crying about. It was kind of embarrassing but prompted Darcy to call him an Uber so at least he got to go home. 

Bucky woke up with a hangover which he really should have expected since it happened every time. He groaned and rolled out of bed to make himself some coffee. If he could have his way, he would have gone right back to sleep but he really needed to get some homework done so he would just have to suffer. Or maybe he could just start drinking again, being drunk probably wouldn't hurt his writing ability and might even help him bullshit his environmental economics paper. 

Grabbing his phone he almost dropped it when he scrolled through his texts from last night. He didn't remember sending any of them, just remembered laughing thinking he was hilarious. Now he was just cringing reading through them. He was glad Steve humored him and hoped thing wouldn't be awkward between them. 

Throughout the day part of Bucky wondered if he had only flirted with Steve because he was drunk or if he was actually interested. He had never met Steve, never even seen him. All he knew for sure was the sound of his voice. It was a nice voice, one that Bucky wouldn’t mind whispering dirty things to him. Even though they had never met in person Bucky counted Steve as one of his closest friends. Steve was there when he needed him and Bucky spent hours massaging him. God, Bucky was falling in love with a guy he had never seen. He really hoped he wasn’t being catfished. 

  
  


Watching presentations was a mixed bag. On the one hand it was painful to watch people fumble their way through a PowerPoint they very clearly made the night before but on the other some of the topics were actually really interesting. Bucky sat in his normal spot and kind of let himself zone in and out. He made sure all of his notes were in order for his own presentation. 

Steve hadn’t mentioned anything about the presentation but had added really detailed slides into the powerpoint with his research so at least Bucky had that to go off of. Steve ended up being way a way better partner that Bucky could have even hoped for. Bucky was last to present which kind of sucked because he would rather just go and get it over with. He didn't have a problem speaking in public, but definitely didn't enjoy it either. He wouldn't even have a partner up there for moral support. He wasn't bitter because he liked Steve way too much for that. 

When it was his turn to present Bucky quickly inserted his USB and pulled up the PowerPoint. Watching groups struggle to access their PowerPoint was painful to watch. Young people were supposed to be good at technology so way dos they all struggle to get into their email accounts to get their slides? He was standing up in front of the class ready to start when the door burst open. 

Bucky was left gaping when Captain fucking America walked in looking flustered. It was a good look, his hair a little messed up from the wind outside face a little red from the cold. 

“Sorry I’m late. I hope I didn’t miss it,” Steve said coming up to the front of the class. 

“You know you have the same name as my partner for this project,” Bucky said impulsively.

“Bucky, I am your partner,” Steve said looking at him like he was an idiot. Bucky’s face went red in embarrassment because wow he was an idiot and even Captain America knew it. 

“Steve, I'm so glad you were able to make it. Bucky was just about to start,” the professor said. Bucky was very aware that even the people who had been sleeping in the back were very much awake and lying attention to them now. 

“Um, I kind of practiced this solo,” Bucky muttered as Steve walked up to him. 

“I'll do the slides I made and you do the ones you made, we'll be fine,” Steve said smiling in a way Bucky feel like it wouldn't be fine because his heart was too busy having palpitations. 

The presentation was actually great. Steve spent most of it telling stories of actually living through the Depression. It was the most interesting lecture Bucky had heard in college so far. He felt bad about his part because they were well researched but no where near as impactful as Steve’s stories. Even though the teacher struggled to get students to stay awake during her own lectures the classes entire focus was on Steve. The question section was insane and not very on topic.they ended going over class time by 20 minutes and still no one left early.  The professor finally had to step in and end the discussion so the next final could start. 

Bucky hung around waiting for the last stragglers to let Steve go. His mind was still reeling from the fact that he had been talking to the real Steve Rogers the whole time. He was also really trying to repress the memory of the drunken attempt to flirt with him. The more he tried to repress it though the more he thought about it. He was about ready to slink away to not have to face a disgusted Captain America only to have Steve come over and throw his arm around Bucky’s shoulders as if he knew Bucky was thinking about escaping.

“So you are the Steve Rogers,” Bucky said finally. 

“Yeah, I thought you knew since you kept making jokes about Captain America,” Steve said confused. 

“I thought I was being ironic. Neither Steve nor Rogers is a unique name and you know since you are famous and all people name their kids after you a lot. I just assumed your parents were really big Cap fans. What are you even doing in this class,” Bucky said in an exasperated tone. 

“I had to drop out of school to support myself, college was never even a dream for me. Now that I have the opportunity to go I had to take it. Also it's a great way to catch up on all of the things I’ve missed,” Steve said with a shrug as if he didn’t say something sad. 

“Well shit. My assignment partner is Captain America,” Bucky said laughing because the whole situation was so strange. 

“Would you still have flirted with me if you had you known?” Steve asked.

“Um, yeah,” Bucky said because he really would have, probably would have tried something other than memes and bad puns if he had know, but Bucky was naturally a flirt even if he didn’t end up acting on those flirtations, so yeah he would have flirted had he know. 

“Then I was hoping you would agree to go on a date with me,” Steve said hope in his eyes. Bucky wasn’t sure why Steve thought there was a chance he would say no. 

“Yes, but I have a question first,” Bucky said waiting for Steve’s nodd to go ahead. “Do you take your shirt off at night your do you just sort of flex and pop out of them” Bucky asked. Steve laughed so hard he throw his head back and grabbing his chest.   
“Well I’m glad this hasn’t changed our relationship at all,” Steve said starting to walk off. 

“Wait you didn’t answer the question!” Bucky said hurrying after him. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing this. If you enjoyed it too let me know :)


End file.
